Custom Meta Widget vs Simple Taxonomy Ordering

Head-to-head on the signals that matter, from the public WordPress.org data.

Custom Meta Widget

by Luke Mlsna

Health D51

Simple Taxonomy Ordering

by Evan Herman

Health D52

Active-install trajectory

Custom Meta Widget Simple Taxonomy Ordering

Active installs, each indexed to 100 at the start of the window. A line above 100 is growing its install base, below 100 is shrinking.

Metric	Custom Meta Widget	Simple Taxonomy Ordering
Active installs Modeled from the public "N+" band and recent downloads.	7K–8K	10K–20K ✓
Install trend Change in active installs across the charted window.	-13% ✓	-50%
Overall health	D · 51	D · 52 ✓
Maintenance How recently the plugin was updated.	3/100	6/100 ✓
Rating quality Volume-adjusted review quality.	91/100	91/100
Support Share of forum threads marked resolved.	70/100	70/100
Rating (adjusted)	4.59★	4.60★ ✓
Reviews	23	28 ✓
Ranking optimization How well the listing is tuned to rank on wp.org.	46/100	61/100 ✓
Removal risk Maintenance signals that precede a wp.org closure. Not an official status.	High	Elevated ✓
Last updated	8.6y ago	3.4y ago ✓
Downloads · 30d	227	6.8K ✓
Category	Admin & Utilities	Admin & Utilities

✓ marks the stronger plugin on each row. Rows where they're level show no marker.

Release activity

Custom Meta Widget Simple Taxonomy Ordering

7-day average daily downloads. Downloads spike for about a week after each release as the install base re-downloads, so read this as release cadence, not growth.